Vozdina
Goverment Vozdina is a collection of formerly independent principalities ruled by a Grand Prince (Veliki Knyaz) from the House of Vladimir. Even if the words of the Grand Prince and of the royal seat of Korolevets are final in terms of law and military authority, the principalities retains some degree of independence: the local princes are responsible for the upkeep of their local armies. They are also to collect their own taxes and to pay a tribute every two months to the central authorities. Bridge tolls, the gathering of salt and minning of gold and silver are royal monopolies. Geography Vozdina lies on the northwestern edge of the Great Forest, that spreads up to the distant White Mountains wich mark the border between the inhabitable areas of the continent and the barren Snow Fields. Consisting mostly of woodlands, the realm of Vozdina is structured around the Green Mountains that rises far above the treeline and offers plenty of iron ore to those who can exploit it. The Green Mountains are also the source of both the Eastern or Greater Ivanska river, that goes around the capital and follow the base of the mountain range up to the sea, and of the Western or Lesser Ivanska, that flows trough the forest before pouring into the vast wetlands in the west. The overall climate of Vozdina is temperate and highly continental, very hot in summer and freezing in winter, but the presence of the Green Mountains can bring unexpected snowfalls upon the capital from September to May. The realm's only access to the sea is a desolate coastline that marks the point where the Green Mountains falls into the sea in a chaos of creeks and hidden bays. Vozdina is thus one of the less maritime nations of the continent and the small port of Ivanovo, at the mouth of the Western Ivanska, is the meeting point between local (river) and foreign (maritime) trade. History Pre-unification For milleniums, the history of the Vozdinian nation is part of the greater tale of the primary Forest Peoples that dwelled in the Great Forest in a seminomadic lifestyle for numberless generations. "Vozdina" itself, as a word and concept, derives from the ancient word "Hvozdh",wich means "deep forest". The Vozdinian tribes were part of the Great Migration that eventually toppled the Old Empire more than 500 years ago. This is where Vozdina truly enters history. Not advancing too deep into imperial territory like the people that would eventually inaugurate the Holy Omnican Empire, the Vozdh stayed on the forested and mountainous margins of it, in a land barely touched by imperial culture and civilization. This era of sedentarization also sees the developpement of a local alphabet (with the help of monks from Archadia) and of the rise of a more unified Vozdinian culture. However Aurelianity remained marginal for centuries, as the princes wouldn't accept the superiority of a figure such as the Heliarch above their head and would fight the presence of missionnaries on their lands. Rise of the Princes of Volodymir The present phase of Vozdinian history is inaugurated with the rise of the House of Vladimir and closely linked to parallel events in the West. The Sotiran reformation indeed allowed some princes to embrace the faith without compromising their authority. As the wars of religion raged between Omnicans and Sotirans in the West, the Vozdinian principalities were divided between the followers of Sotirastry (or the local, peculiar version if it) and those clinging to the beleifs of old. While the wars ended in a precarious balance on the continent, Aurelianity finally triumphed and was accepted as the official religion of all princes and principalities, wich rallied around the champion of the new faith and national unifier, the Prince of Volodymir. Styling himself "Grand Prince", the first national ruler of "All the Vozdh", Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Veliki, founded a new royal seat called "Korolevets" (the King's Mountain) right next to the old city of Volodymir, wich was to mark the location of the Kremlin, a magnificent fortress filled with palaces and many new religious structures wich marked the triumph of Aurelianism over the ancient beleifs. As of the current days of the year 2187, the successors of Vyacheslav the Great rule over a realm formed barely 60 years ago from a new capital wich embodies the spirit and success of the unified Vozdina. Despite the wars of unification and the initial discontent, enough decentralization and the fruits of peace made most of the Principalities generally supportive of the newborn state. While industrious citizens desires to expand over territory once firmly held by a sometime hostile forest, the rulers in Korolevets seeks recognition of the foreign sovereigns and to establish their nation as a strong local power while slowly crawling out of milleniums of barbarism. Category:States of Pluribus Category:States of Hasperia